NOVEL NEXT S-22. Big Damn Gunship!!
With thirteen Bladebugs bearing down on us, plus a cruiser-full of spinefire to dodge, Maurice thought the situation was dire enough that we should regroup at waypoint beta. As we turned tail, a problem quickly became apparent. The Bladebugs were no longer masking their ability to accelerate towards us at 30Gs, which was nearly twice the acceleration of our Frames. Simply put, we couldn’t get away safely.
Miette gave me a look. I knew what she was about to ask, and I was filled with dread. I pre-empted her question.
“Fine, I’ll do it. One burst only.” She nodded, satisfied.
Ugh, I hate doing this. It’s so risky. Still, better injured than dead…
I sent a ping to everyone, letting them now I’d be temporarily disabling the acceleration safeties. I coordinated a single burst of 45Gs, lasting 1.5 seconds, and we got just enough distance to fall into formation at waypoint beta. A couple of the pilots greyed out for a few seconds, but at least they weren’t bug meat. Our units formed a defensive sphere, covering each other’s backs, and we awaited the swarm of oncoming Bladebugs with bated breath while intercepting the cruiser’s spinefire with suppressive bursts.
The defensive formation enabled us to hold our own for the moment, and we worked on whittling down the incoming Bladebugs with our shoulder cannons while we sprayed suppressive fire at the spines with our handheld rifles. The critters came in hot, and only Sabina and Miette were accurate enough to snipe at their weak points and score one kill apiece while they were still incoming. When they got into melee range, things went downhill fast.
Melee combat against these insects was exceptionally difficult. Their blade-arms could pass through Gravity Frame armor like shit through a goose, and our plasma blades bounced off their tough exoskeletons without leaving a scratch. We had to score a hit on their neck joints to kill them, while avoiding their furious attacks and simultaneously intercepting or dodging the incoming spinefire. The Sarcophage cruiser was utterly unconcerned about hitting its allied units as it shot at us, since the Bladebug's armor was tough enough to shrug off friendly fire. The end result of this was a deadly storm of spines and blades that assaulted us from every direction; it was like standing in the middle of a category five hurricane.
It was a credit to Miette’s piloting that she wove me through this hurricane with extraordinary grace and precision. I was so frightened I wanted to clamp my eyes shut and curl up in a ball, but Miette kept her cool and matched her tempo to the battle’s. There were a couple of close calls, and I got a few nicks on my armor from the tips of bug blades, but when she managed to jam my plasma blades through one of the creature’s writhing tentacle-heads, we watched it flail and die with immense satisfaction.
It was a small bright point amidst a miasma of despair. By the time a minute had elapsed, we were on the back foot. Including Miette’s kill, we had only managed to splash two of the Bladebugs at melee range, still leaving nine. Several of our Frames had taken critical damage; Maurice’s Frame was missing its head, Alexis and Genevi had each lost a leg, and Sabina was still missing an arm for earlier. It was a matter of seconds before we were completely overwhelmed, and I was growing desperate. I couldn’t think of any way out of this nightmare.
Guh, this is the end, isn’t it? I only hope I get reincarnated somewhere more peaceful next time… and hopefully alongside Miette…
Just then, I saw the Sarcophage cruiser light up. Positron artillery fire slammed into it from above, breaking it into pieces, and the spinefire stopped.
What? Who just?
The Bladebugs froze for just a moment as their mothership exploded, and we took the opportunity to counterattack. Aiming positron blasts and plasma blades at their weak spots, we managed to gut three more while they were stunned. Meanwhile, as the cruiser’s jamming and gravity distortions cleared, I picked up a massive signature on LIDAR; the thing responsible for the cruiser’s destruction. The familiar arrowhead-shaped outline of a Gravity Frame carrier ship resolved itself. It beamed a radio signal at me.
“Incoming hail!” I reported. I piped it through, and a woman’s voice rang through all our cockpits.
“Pilots of the Radiolaria, this is Captain Monica Skelton of the Telesthesia II. Apologies for our late arrival. Can we be of assistance?”
What? WHAT? NO WAY! BIG DAMN GUNSHIP TO THE RESCUE!!
That voice was like the sweetest music to our ears. Everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief, although I saw Genevi’s eyes go wide as she gasped in shock.
Hmm? What’s got her surprised?
Maurice quickly made a request of the captain. “Captain, can you lay down a suppressive field of fire one half-click south-southwest of our location, please? We’ll drive these bugs into it.”
“Roger that. We will open fire in ten seconds.”
I quickly updated everyone’s tactical projections with that information, and the six of us worked to herd the remaining Bladebugs towards the indicated position. When the ten seconds had elapsed, the Telesthesia II’s artillery opened fire with an intense broadside. Each Bladebug took about ten artillery shots to splash, but the carrier had firepower to spare and the sheer force of the its weaponry kept them staggered. It was an effective mix of high damage and stun-locking. By the time the bugs maneuvered clear of the firing solution, there were only three left.
We made short work of those remaining three bugs. We were all pretty pissed off by this point, so we may have taken it out on them a bit. By the time we were done, only ribbons of bug-flesh remained, and we were all smeared in insect fluids. Another humiliating bout of decontamination was no doubt in our near future.
It was worth it, though. Call it stress relief. Violent, giant robot stress relief. We had been centimeters from death, so we all had a lot of stress to discharge.
*****
After we finished, er, “mopping up” the battlefield, we fell into formation around the Telesthesia II to escort her to Eros. With the battle behind us, we finally got a chance to get a good look at her captain when she opened up video comms. Unlike Captain Savitskaya, who was in her late forties, Captain Skelton looked to be in her mid-twenties at most. She had platinum blonde hair drawn back into a ponytail, intense blue eyes, an athletic build and the rigid posture of a command officer. She reminded me of a certain fictional bounty hunter who fought space pirates; she seemed just as much of a hard-boiled badass at first impression.
As soon as she popped up onscreen, Genevi was the first to speak up. Everyone stared at her, a bit confused by her uncharacteristic talkativeness.
“Monica!” she exclaimed happily. “It IS you!”
“Hello Genevi, Sabina. It’s been too long.” Captain Skelton’s smile was soft, and her eyes full of memory. “When I heard the Radiolaria was at Eros, I wondered if I’d see you two.”
Sabina chuckled. “Long time no see, Monica.”
The rest of us just stared at the (apparently) touching reunion in silence. Maurice gave it ten seconds before he cleared his throat. “Ah-hem.”
Captain Skelton snapped to attention. It was weird seeing her brought back on track by a mere 1st Lieutenant; usually these things were the other way around. “Ah, sorry. I see four of your Frames are damaged. Do you require immediate docking?”
Maurice looked at me, and I shook my head. The damage to the Frames wasn’t immediately threatening to the pilot’s lives.
“That’s a negative. We should be able to make it back to Eros alright.”
“Good deal.” Captain Skelton nodded. “I’m glad everyone survived this time.”
“As am I. We have you to thank for that, Captain. If I may ask, how exactly did you get the jump on the Sarcophage cruiser like that?” Maurice asked the question that was on all our minds. We were immensely grateful for the rescue, but also highly curious how she had pulled it off.
“Ahh, it’s an old tactic of mine called ‘silent running.’” Captain Skelton explained. “Basically we coasted into the battlefield on inertia, with our drive fins and system shut down so we weren’t emitting any kind of gravity waves or radiation, using passive sensors only to keep an eye on our surroundings. The Sarcophage cruiser was so focused on you that it didn’t notice our big ol’ ship with the sensor signature of a rock getting close before we had a straight shot at it. Let me tell you, pulling all that off without an AI was a real pain in the ass.”
“That’s impressive. I’ve never heard of that technique before.” Miette said, sounding skeptical.
“Hmm… the Skelton Maneuver…” I mused. Miette rolled her eyes at that remark.
“It’s not in any of the combat manuals. I’ve only managed to pull it off twice before; it only works in a very specific set of circumstances. In this case, for reasons I can not fathom, the cruiser was intensely focused on your squadron. That’s why it was oblivious to us until it was too late.”
“We were oblivious to you as well, since we were focused on the battle.” Maurice added. “I can see how they’d get tunnel vision.” Anthropomorphizing the Sarcophage was a human conceit based on absolutely no hard evidence whatsoever, but we had no better theory to go on at the moment. I’m sure we’d examine the whole strange battle in detail in our imminent debriefing.
We proceeded to escort the Telesthesia II to a rendezvous with the Radiolaria which was still keeping station in orbit around Eros. After that, we headed back to docking bay 19. As we cruised on home, everyone in the squadron turned questioning eyes onto Genevi and Sabina. The two of them squirmed under our gaze.
“W-What is it?” Sabina asked. Genevi just looked guilty, somehow.
“Spill the beans.” Miette said. “You KNOW Captain Skelton. You even addressed her by first name, to her face, on the battlefield. If I ever tried that with Captain Savitskaya, I’d have a boot rammed up my ass so fast I’d achieve relativistic velocities. That tells me you three are close, VERY close. So, what’s your relationship?”
“Ahahahaha, I’m gonna let Genevi answer that one.” Sabina dodged the question with an apologetic expression, looking at her sister.
“N-No fair! Uh… uh…” Genevi stuttered. We all waited expectantly. “W-Well, you see… Monica attended the Academy with me and Sabina. She’s… She’s my ex-girlfriend.”
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!” we all cried in unison.
